Carla Bruni: Michelle Obama Never Called White House "Hell"

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy staunchly denied in an interview on Monday recent allegations that first lady Michelle Obama called her life in the White House "hell," and strongly disassociated herself from the source of the allegation.

"Of course Michelle Obama never said such a thing," Bruni-Sarkozy said in an interview with CNN.

In a new unauthorized book about Bruni-Sarkozy, "Carla and the Ambitious," Obama was accused of complaining to her French counterpart that life at the White House was "hell" and that she "can't stand it."

The French Embassy in Washington also released a statement last Thursday disassociating Bruni-Sarkozy from the book's claims, but she further distanced herself from its content yesterday in an interview. "I'm happy to tell you very frankly that this is not an authorized book," Bruni-Sarkozy said, adding that she was not inclined to take legal action against its authors.

"I never read the book, I never knew about the book - but I do live in France, and France is a free country, where anyone can, you know, fantasize and print it," Bruni-Sarkozy said.

"Of course I could do something legal, but... it gives a lot of publicity to all those books. And second of all, it is not in my principle. You know, I'm a Democrat. I believe that everyone is allowed to say and write anything that they want."

The authors of the book stand by the quote attributed to Obama, but won't disclose the source.

Lucy Madison is a political reporter for CBSNews.com. You can read more of her posts here. Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter.